Episode 36

Immediately after conquering the second tier.

Kim Hyunwoo began receiving reports from Elena about the second tier.

Listening to her report, Kim Hyunwoo wore a satisfied expression.

Of course, Kim Hyunwoo could have a rough idea by seeing that the number of soldiers hadn’t decreased through the troop window, but listening to Elena’s report made him feel certain that the task was thoroughly completed.

Therefore, Kim Hyunwoo, who had been silently listening to her report for a while, said,

“And when we caught the Boss of this second tier, this came out.”

Upon Elena’s words, he looked at the blue bone placed on the desk and asked back,

“…This?”

“Yes. There wasn’t exactly a crisis, but this time it seemed to help me defeat the Boss more quickly.”

“When I turned around to target its weakness, it pierced through the Gnoll’s ankle, immobilizing it,” Elena continued. Hearing this, Kim Hyunwoo quietly looked down at the blue bone.

This bone was slightly larger than the blue bone Elena had brought before.

Kim Hyunwoo, silently observing it, sent Elena away first and then quietly looked at the blue bone and thought,

‘Is the Necromancer of the Blue Forest alive?’

In fact, Kim Hyunwoo’s thought was somewhat unrealistic.

After all, the Necromancer of the Blue Forest had died in the Labyrinth, and Kim Hyunwoo had given up on gathering the resurrection materials halfway and couldn’t revive them.

However, the reason Kim Hyunwoo made such an unrealistic assumption was because the blue bone, which could be seen as a trace of her skill, was found twice in a row.

‘What exactly is it?’

Kim Hyunwoo picked up the blue bone and looked at it from various angles.

Because he wondered if there might be any clue.

After looking around the blue bone for a while, Kim Hyunwoo soon confirmed that there were no particular marks on it.

‘…It seems like I’ll need to go deeper into the Labyrinth to find any clues.’

Having come to that conclusion, Kim Hyunwoo did not hesitate to leave the blue bone in a corner.

He knew that it was not a problem that could be solved alone by him thinking about it.

Therefore, having placed the bone in a corner, Kim Hyunwoo-

‘Now, let’s check the rewards first.’

With that thought, he went downstairs.

Kim Hyunwoo was able to obtain about 130 of the lowest-grade Magic Stones and about 70 lower-grade Magic Stones as rewards for the second tier, similar to the first tier, but unfortunately, no artifacts appeared.

‘This is a bit disappointing.’

Actually, starting from the second tier, artifacts were expected to appear, but Kim Hyunwoo felt strange since not even a usable weapon, let alone an artifact, appeared. However, he soon shook off his disappointment.

After all, the artifacts from the second tier weren’t that useful, and what he really needed at the moment were Magic Stones, not artifacts.

‘Well, since the workshop level isn’t high, it doesn’t consume many Magic Stones, so this amount seems sufficient for now.’

The workshop, a building Kim Hyunwoo had recently upgraded, consumes more Magic Stones the higher its level, improving resource production efficiency.

However, since the current level of the processing plants Kim Hyunwoo had upgraded were still at 1, the Magic Stones harvested from the first tier were enough to manage it, so he felt somewhat satisfied. Leaving the piled Magic Stones behind, he thought as he went up to the first floor.

‘If I can develop up to the third tier, I think I can officially open a Labyrinth city… Can’t I do it a bit faster?’

In fact, Kim Hyunwoo knew that things were going quite smoothly as of now.

Lartania was growing day by day, and Elena was growing faster than Kim Hyunwoo had thought.

Moreover, thanks to Lani, who was recruited this time, the speed of developing the Labyrinth city was bound to accelerate even more.

However, as Kim Hyunwoo had the goal of creating a Labyrinth city, it was true that he was getting impatient, so he habitually opened Elena’s information window.

Thanks to successfully clearing the second tier, Elena’s stats had grown a bit more compared to just a day ago, making her a commendable 2-star hero.

Furthermore, although the current barracks level wasn’t at 3, so the hero’s proficiency couldn’t be properly measured, considering her innate talent with the hand axe, Elena had probably become almost a different person in terms of strength as compared to when she was first recruited.

Therefore, after staring at Elena’s stat window for a while, Kim Hyunwoo thought,

‘…Should I just go down myself and break through the third tier this time? It seems like it can be done with sufficient control of the third tier.’

He seriously contemplated this while staring intently at Elena’s stat window for a while.

Gulra didn’t properly know how Elena had become stronger.

Similarly, he didn’t know what abilities the Lord had.

However, he was sure of the fact that Elena, once called a failed hero for her weakness, had suddenly become strong and that the Lord of Lartania was somehow involved in it.

Of course, all of Gulra’s assumptions were close to conjecture, but that didn’t mean they were unreliable.

Since the rumors that the failed hero had become strong were circulating, Gulra’s conjectures became somewhat credible.

Therefore, Gulra decided to investigate how the Lord of Lartania influenced the strength of heroes.

‘If I can find out a little more than what the rumors have spread, this information will surely make money.’

Not just any money, but it was sure to be a lot of money.

Right now, it was just a rumor among mercenaries, so nobody was particularly interested, but if this turned out to be true, various territories would pay attention to the Lartania.

The Lartania territory was bound to become noisy, for better or worse.

‘If the territory has grown a bit, being noisy would be the least of its problems.’

If he could sell proper information, not just rumors, to the information guild, the Lord of Lartania, who hadn’t properly grown yet, was likely to face a lot of trouble in many ways.

‘That’s not my problem.’

Even if this information proves to be true and Lartania gets caught up in inter-territory political fights and is destroyed, it was no concern of Gulra’s.

His goal was solely to make money by selling information, nothing more.

With that thought in mind, despite having received a reward from Kim Hyunwoo, Gulra had been sticking around Lartania for two days, investigating information.

“Hey, long time no see, Elena.”

“Gulra.”

Today, he met Elena, the main character of those rumors and once called a failed hero.

Fortunately, as far as Gulra remembered, his relationship with Elena wasn’t that bad.

Unlike other mercenaries who mocked her by calling her a failed hero, he didn’t specifically mock Elena.

“By the way, Elena, you’ve become quite strong recently-”

So, with a genial smile, as Gulra was asking her how she has been, trying to probe her-

“It’s not that I’ve become strong; I’ve always been this strong.”

“…What?”

Gulra couldn’t help but ask again immediately after hearing what came next.

“Exactly as I said, my strength has always been at this level.”

“That’s a bit hard to believe-”

Gulra tried to question Elena’s statement further, but-

“Gulra, do you think it makes sense for a mercenary who has been working for a long time to have similar skills to an ordinary mercenary?”

“……”

Following Elena’s words, Gulra closed his mouth.

Certainly, her words were not wrong.

Originally, the reason the mercenaries called her a failed hero was because she was too weak to be a hero.

“But then why pretend to be weak until now-”

However, feeling something was off, he still asked the question.

“I don’t think I need to tell you that much. Then, I’ll be going.”

Elena briefly greeted and left the tavern as if she had no obligation to answer that far.

Gulra, who had been watching the door she left through for a while, thought,

“Surely, if you ask which is a bit more realistic, it would be that. But still-”

Around the time he was thinking that,

Elena was-

“Sigh.”

-sighing as she left the tavern.

Of course, everything Elena said was a lie.

However, the reason she lied to Gulra was because she knew he was quite a famous information hunter.

Knowing this, Elena vaguely sensed the intention behind Gulra’s question and lied on purpose.

She took measures to prevent the possibility of Gulra selling information that could trouble the Lord.

Even though he says he was not, if rumors like “the Lord has the power to make heroes stronger” spread as strangely as they did now, it would be very difficult for the Lord.

That’s why Elena stopped it.

…On the surface.

“Honestly, I don’t know what you’re so worried about. Wouldn’t it be much better to help me than that ‘failed hero’?”

Clench.

Elena unknowingly thought of Alta’s voice and clenched her fist.

In fact, there was one more reason why Elena stood up to Gulra.

Rather than a reason for standing up, it was more like an instinctive thought.

The moment she heard Gulra’s words, she thought the Lord would be in trouble and imagined a new hero appearing to the Lord.

And,

those heroes being stronger than herself,

catching the Lord’s eye,

she unwittingly imagined herself returning to her former state.

“No…”

That was something that must not happen to Elena.

She needed the Lord.

He was absolutely vital.

He must not disappear.

Elena cherished the Lord.

Ironically, she instinctively realized this fact the moment Gulra posed his question.

Therefore,

“I need to become stronger, so that another hero is not needed-”

Elena thought.

“Even if another hero appears, to the extent that I will still be looked upon without change.”

…Her heart was heavy.

And,

“…Huh?”

Kim Hyunwoo, who was pondering how to tackle the third tier, involuntarily made a sound upon seeing Elena’s affection level measured unbelievably high.